The Go-Go’s were an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1978. Except for short periods when other musicians joined briefly, the band has had a relatively stable lineup consisting of Charlotte Caffey on lead guitar and keyboards, Belinda Carlisle on lead vocals, Gina Schock on drums, Kathy Valentine on bass, and Jane Wiedlin on rhythm guitar. They are widely considered the most successful all-female rock band of all time.
The quintet emerged from the L.A. punk rock scene of the late 1970s and in 1981 released their debut album Beauty and the Beat. The LP topped the Billboard album chart — a (still-unequaled) first for an all-female band writing their own material and playing their own instruments. Beauty and the Beat is considered one of the “cornerstone albums of US new wave” having broken barriers and paved the way for a host of other new American acts. It yielded two of the Go-Go’s four biggest Hot 100 hits—”Our Lips Are Sealed” (no. 20) and “We Got The Beat” (no. 2)—and, after a long and steady climb, reached number one in the chart in March 1982. The album stayed at the top for six consecutive weeks, eventually selling more than two million copies. The group, credited as simply Go-Go’s on all of their US releases, was nominated for the Best New Artist award at the 24th Annual Grammy Awards.
The follow-up album, Vacation, received mixed reviews and sold less than Beauty and the Beat. However, the album was certified gold in the U.S. and spawned another Top 10 U.S. hit with the title track. Other singles released from the album were “Get Up and Go” and “This Old Feeling”, neither of which made it into the Top 40. In 1983, Vacation was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Packaging. During the album’s promotion, the group went on hiatus when Schock underwent surgery for a congenital heart defect. Vacation was followed by Talk Show (1984), which included the hits “Head Over Heels” (no. 11) and “Turn to You” (no. 32). The Go-Go’s have sold more than seven million records worldwide.
The Go-Go’s broke up in 1985, with each member embarking on a solo career, and Carlisle being the most successful, having several top-5 singles through the late 1980s. They have reconvened several times starting in the 1990s, In 1994, the same lineup got together again to release a two-disc retrospective entitled Return to the Valley of the Go-Go’s, featuring three new recordings. The single “The Whole World Lost It’s Head” peaked at No. 21 on the Billboard Modern Rock charts and “bubbled under” on the US charts at No. 108, and became the band’s first and only Top 40 hit in the UK, peaking at No. 29.
The band released a new album in 2001, “God Bless the Go-Go’s”, and went touring. They received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2011. Though the band’s 2016 performances were billed as a farewell tour, the band remains active on an ad hoc basis. Head Over Heels, a musical featuring the songs of the Go-Go’s, ran on Broadway at the Hudson Theatre from 2018 to 2019. The band was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2021.
